The invention relates to an arrangement for supplying an internal combustion engine with fuel, comprising a fuel container including a fuel reservoir, a fuel pump, a fuel filter and a fuel level sensor and pipe elements which are accessible by a closable opening in the fuel container.
DE 195 28 182 A1 discloses a fuel pumping unit for pumping fuel from a fuel tank to an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle. The fuel pumping unit can be arranged in the fuel tank as an assembly unit. A tank flange is connected, by way of a rotatable and longitudinally movable mechanical connection to a surge pot which includes a fuel pump and a fuel level sensor. The mechanical connection includes two spring elements which are mounted on the tank flange and the surge pot in a non-pivotable or -rotatable manner. Intermediate sections of the spring elements facilitate longitudinal movement and rotation of the surge pot relative to the tank flange and its support on the bottom of the fuel tank in a uniform manner.
Normally, the surge pot which is arranged within the fuel tank is part of a fuel pumping unit which also includes an electric fuel pump, by which fuel is supplied to the internal combustion engine. The purpose of the surge pot whose volume is substantially smaller than that of the fuel tank is mainly to ensure that a sufficient amount of fuel is contained in the area of the fuel pump inlet even under adverse operating conditions for example when the tank is close to empty or when negotiating a long curve or when the vehicle is not in a horizontal position. This requires the presence of a certain minimum amount of fuel in the surge pot so that the surge pot must have a certain minimum volume which is reduced by the fuel pumping unit and other components usually disposed in the surge pot. Today's motor vehicles however require a surge pot with a particularly large volume since short-term interruption of the fuel supply may for example cause damage to an exhaust gas catalytic converter.
For reason of stability of the fuel container and in order to achieve low emissions and to provide for a simple sealing of the container opening by a closing element, one usually tries to keep the cross-section of the opening in the fuel container as small as possible. For units which comprise a surge pot, a fuel supply pump and a fuel filter the size and consequently the volume of the surge pot is therefore limited. Extreme operating conditions of the vehicle, that is extreme sideward leaning or high centrifugal forces when negotiating a curve, can therefore result in a possibly large fuel loss per time unit from the surge pot. In order to ensure that also under these conditions a sufficiently large amount of fuel remains at the inlet for the fuel pump unit, the surge pot, whose height is limited by the height of the fuel tank, should have a relatively large volume. This however can be achieved only by a corresponding enlargement of the cross-section of the surge pot.
It is consequently the object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for supplying an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle with fuel and also to provide a method of servicing or repairing such an arrangement in a simple and inexpensive way, wherein in spite of a small opening in the wall of the fuel container, a relatively large surge pot or fuel reservoir is provided.